EVOLUTION, EDUCATION, AND EUGENICS: ORGANIC SELECTION IN PROGRESSIVE ERA AMERICA JACY L. YOUNG A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN PSYCHOLOGY YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO DECEMBER 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-62454-8 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-62454-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ••I Canada iv Abstract In the late-nineteenth century developmental psychologist James Mark Baldwin, comparative psychologist Conwy Lloyd Morgan, and vertebrate paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn each independently proposed a new evolutionary selection theory. Termed organic selection, this theory proposed that learning could guide biological evolution in a non-Lamarckian manner. In the context of a society concerned about the progress of the human race this theory had profound implications, particularly in light of recent work undermining the viability of the inheritance of acquired characters. Organic selection implied that educational endeavours might not only improve individuals, but also their descendants. In this way organic selection reinforced the value of widespread educational initiatives. For organic selection's originators, each of whom had a professional stake in education broadly conceived, the theory also served to enhance the status of their professional activities. V Acknowledgements I would like to thank Christopher D. Green for his invaluable commentary, support, and encouragement throughout both the research and writing process. I would also like to thank Fred Weizmann for his commentary on an earlier version of this manuscript, and Michael Pettit for recommending many useful sources. Finally, I would like to thank the various HTers who made the writing process more enjoyable than it might otherwise have been. Tables of Contents Introduction Chapter One: Baldwin, Lloyd Morgan, and Osbom before 1896 Chapter Two: Late-Nineteenth Century Evolutionary Discourse Chapter Three: Evolution, Education, and Race Progress Conclusion References 1 Introduction At the end of the nineteenth century, three men, James Mark Baldwin (1861- 1934), Conwy Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936), and Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857-1935) proposed a new evolutionary selection theory. I argue that this theory, dubbed organic selection, may only be fully understood when considered within the context of its emergence within Progressive Era America. Organic selection, both the theory itself and its implications, addressed both the scientific and social needs of the period. The theory offered both the era's scientific and social discourses a non-Lamarckian means by which physical or behavioural changes in an organism's lifetime might ultimately come to be inherited by later generations. As a consequence, the theory implies that alterations to the environment, such as educational initiatives intentionally undertaken by society, are a potentially impactful means of ensuring race progress. For organic selection's originators, each of whom had a professional stake in education, this consequence of the theory was not only socially necessary, but also personally beneficial. 1 Throughout this thesis, individual evolutionary views will largely be characterized as either neo-Darwinian or neo-Lamarckian. The term neo-Lamarckian is used to describe those who adopted some form of inheritance of acquired characters as the mechanism of evolution, but who did not necessarily ascribe to the particulars of Lamarck's theory. In contrast, the term neo-Darwinian is used to refer to individuals who ascribed to Charles Darwin's evolutionary theories, particularly his doctrine of natural selection, but who sanitized any mention of the inheritance of acquired characters from these views (Numbers, 1998). This use of the term neo-Darwinian should be distinguished from the way in which the term would come to be used in the twentieth century. With the advent of the modern synthesis of genetic and evolutionary theory in the first half of the twentieth century the term neo- Darwinian came to reference this new synthetic theory. 2 Race is used here and throughout this thesis as it was employed and understood by Baldwin and his contemporaries, that is, as short hand for the human race. 2 Although Charles Darwin introduced the now-dominant idea of natural selection in 1859's Origin of Species, natural selection was not immediately adopted as the mechanism of evolution. Rather, in the United States of America3 at least, Darwin's proposal that evolution worked by way of natural selection spurred not a widespread acceptance of the specific evolutionary process Darwin proposed, but rather an acceptance of the more general idea that life evolved. There was certainly a faction of Americans who adopted natural selection as a factor in evolution; yet, the majority of those in United States, even those who accepted the veracity of natural selection, continued to invoke the inheritance of acquired characters as an additional factor in evolution, much as did Darwin himself. As a consequence, the years following the publication of Darwin's theory saw American scientists offer pronounced support for evolutionary mechanisms other than natural selection (Numbers, 1998). The aim of this thesis is to explicate the development and reception of one of these subsequent theories: organic selection. At the time organic selection was proposed evolutionary thinking was in a state of flux. Most specifically, the validity of the inheritance of acquired characters as an evolutionary mechanism was subject to increasing question. Those seeking to maintain a role for ontogenic change (i.e., change during an organism's lifetime) in the evolutionary process were forced to reconsider the means by which such change might influence phylogeny (i.e., the evolutionary development of a species). In the 3 The term "America" is used throughout this thesis as shorthand for the United States of America, and not as a referent for the entirety of the North American, or South American, context. 3 case of Baldwin, Lloyd Morgan, and Osborn, such considerations led to the proposal of an alternate evolutionary mechanism. Organic selection, as presented by Lloyd Morgan, holds that, ...plastic modification leads and germinal variation follows; the one paves the way for the other.... It is here suggested that the modification as such is not inherited, but is the condition under which congenital variations are favored and given time to get a hold on the organism, and are thus enabled by degrees to reach the fully adaptive level. (1896c, p. 740; see also, Lloyd Morgan, 1896b) Or, in Osborn's words, ontogenic adaptation is of a very profound character, it enables animals and plants to survive very critical changes in their environment. Thus all the individuals of a race are similarly modified over such long periods of time that, very gradually, congenital variations which happen to coincide with the ontogenic adaptive modifications are collected and become phylogenic. Thus there would result an apparent but not real transmission of acquired characters. (1897, p. 946, italics original) And, finally, as presented in greater detail by Baldwin, Assuming the operations of natural selection as currently held, and assuming also that individual organisms through adaptation acquire modifications or new characters, then the latter will exercise a directive influence on the former quite independently of any direct inheritance of acquired characters. For 4 organisms which survive through adaptive modification will hand on to the next generation any "coincident variations" (i.e. congenital variations in the same direction as adaptive modification)